Ciprico Inc., a data storage provider based in Plymouth, Minn., has appointed Steven D. Merrifield as its new president and CEO.

Merrifield replaces James W. Hansen, Ciprico's chairman of the board of directors who has served as CEO since September 2004. Hansen will remain chairman.

Merrifield most recently held the position of senior vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST), a division of Hitachi, where he was also a member of the executive committee and board of directors. Merrifield was also in charge of managing the operations and sales organizations of the division following the merger of the IBM Storage Technology division and the Hitachi Hard Drive Co. Prior to Hitachi GST, Merrifield served as a senior executive at IBM.

Hansen said "Steve's distinguished track record of successes in executive management, sales and marketing over the past several decades, coupled with his deep knowledge of our industry and of our target markets . makes him the ideal person to move us to the next stage of growth."

Merrifield said the company is now positioned, over the next 18 months, to extend its capabilities into the consumer, small business and enterprise storage markets.Print Page